Dango
by Ky II
Summary: Second year of middle school. The Generation of Miracles walk home together after school. Oneshot.


**Disclaimer:** All Kuroko no Basuke characters and references do not belong to me. Obviously.

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It was a beautiful evening, the sun just setting over the horizon and staining the world in a golden light. Birds chirped as a soft breeze whispered over the grass, warm with the promise of summer. The rumble of traffic was a distant noise in the background, mostly obscured by the soft ripple of water from the river as six boys walked home together on a meandering path.

"Ahh~ I'm so tired," Kise sighed, grimacing as he stretched sore muscles. "Practice today was so _long! _I seriously think Momoicchi's trying to kill us in secret or something - why else would she have _tripled _our regular workout? And I can't believe the Coach actually let her do it!"

"Maybe it's because those skinny arms of yours aren't pulling their weight on this team," Aomine teased, jabbing Kise hard with an elbow in the ribs. The blonde boy yelped, rubbing the already abused muscles indignantly.

"Aomine is correct," Midorima cut in before Kise could blurt out his reply - which, judging by the pout on his face, had been a rather cutting comeback. "It is useless to have skill if we do not work to maintain our best. It is only when we have done all we could that we may leave the rest to God. As I always say, man proposes, God dis—"

"Spouting your ridiculous mumbo-jumbo voodoo again, Midorima?" Aomine snorted. "What, did Oha-Asa say that you'd finally convert somebody today?"

"Why you—!"

"_Enough_."

The three of them instantly shut up at the quietly spoken command. Red eyes observed them intently, one eyebrow raised in warning. "Satsuki was observing the high school champion team's usual practice regimen over the weekend. Though we are currently in middle school, none of the other teams can match us in terms of power. It was my decision to test our strength against that of the high school champion - which is why we have a practice match scheduled against Rakuzan High next week. _That_ is the reason for the increase in practice. I will not tolerate anything less than total victory."

The entire team blinked in shock at the softly spoken proclamation. "B-b-but Akashicchi!" Kise pleaded, the first to break the silence. "Against a high school? We're only second-years in middle school! How can you expect us to win against the _high school champions!?"_

Akashi leveled Kise with determined red eyes. "Have you forgotten the motto of our school, Ryouta? We will win. I will not accept anything else."

"Ahh~" Murasakibara yawned, speaking up for the first time. "So troublesome." The bag of prawn sticks he held crinkled as he grabbed a handful, shoving the lot into his mouth and crunching loudly. "Aka-chin really knows how to push people."

"I agree with Akashi-sempai's decision," another voice added from right behind Kise. The blond player shrieked in surprise, spinning around to find the sixth and most elusive member of their basketball team walking right behind him.

"K-Kurokocchi!" Kise whined, tears already forming at the corners of his eyes as he hastily rubbed his arms to get rid of the sudden onslaught of goosebumps. "Don't do that to me! So mean!"

"Nice going, Tetsu!" Aomine cheered, offering his fist. Kuroko smiled faintly, bumping fists in return.

"Waaah! Midorimacchi! Kurokocchi and Aominecchi are ganging up on me~!" Kise flung both arms around Midorima's neck, hanging on with all his strength.

"Hey! Get your snot away from me!" Midorima yelled, trying to untangle himself from Kise's grasp by pushing the blond boy's face as far away as possible.

"Ah. So Kise-chin and Mido-chin had _that_ kind of relationship," Murasakibara hummed thoughtfully.

Kise perked up, instantly letting go of Midorima to stick himself onto Kuroko instead. "What? NO! Kurokocchi, you know my heart only beats for you~!"

_Whack._ Aomine's fist colliding with the back of Kise's skull effectively put an end to the conversation. "Shut up, baka," Aomine grunted, rubbing his fist while smugly eyeing the growing lump forming on the back of Kise's head. "And let go of Tetsu." Kuroko chuckled softly, patting Kise's shoulder to quieten his mumbled complaints - complaints which mostly involved proclaiming what an idiot Aomine was and how Kuroko was the only one Kise would ever want. "Are you alright, Kise-kun?" Kuroko questioned.

Kise blinked teary eyes up at the blue-haired player, his bottom lip trembling just a second before he burst into another round of tears, reattaching both of his arms more firmly around Kuroko's neck. "Waah! Kurokocchi's the only one who looks out for me! That's why I'll always love—"

Another whack to the back of the head, courtesy of Aomine, had Kise stumbling to the back of the group. "I _said _to let go of Tetsu!" Aomine growled threateningly back to the blond-haired player.

"Hey!"

The sudden shout was their only warning before the Teiko team experienced what it must feel like to walk into a solid brick wall. "What the hell…?" Aomine grumbled, rubbing his nose from where he'd collided with Midorima's shoulder. "What's with the sudden stop?"

At the front of the group Murasakibara had come to a dead standstill, causing the rest of the team to crash into him amidst loud grumbles and complaints. Only Akashi had managed to avoid the collision, stepping neatly to the side when he saw Murasakibara beginning to stop. Kise, already suffering from two blows to the back of the head, now nursed a bruised forehead as well and was miserably moping in self-pity.

"What is it, Atsushi?" Akashi asked the two-meter-tall player, glancing in the direction the purple-haired boy was staring and raising his eyebrows in sudden understanding.

"Yeah, what the hell was that for?" Aomine scowled in irritation. "Can't you walk properly? Don't walk right in front if you're gonna stop just like that."

"Oha-Asa did mention that Cancer was seventh on the list for luck today," Midorima mumbled to himself in the background, reaching into his pocket to clutch at the fairy wand that was supposedly the lucky item for the day. "Perhaps I have the wrong brand of toy…? I knew I should've bought the more expensive one…"

"I-It's…" Murasakibara whispered, hands clenching tightly. The bag of prawn sticks fell from his hold, already long empty.

"What is it already?" Aomine grumbled, finally looking in the direction Murasakibara's eyes were fixed. "It can't be _that _importa- _oh._"

"DANGO!" Murasakibara shouted, his expression lighting up like a child on Christmas day. Faster than any of them could react, the purple-haired giant was already sprinting up the grassy hill to the dango stand by the bridge. Aomine huffed in exasperation while Midorima adjusted his glasses - all of them were long used to their teammate's obsession with tasty snacks.

"Well, we might as well go join him," Aomine sighed, slinging an arm around Kuroko's neck and nearly dragging the smaller boy up the hill with him. "Hey, Tetsu, you want some too? I've got some extra cash on me."

"Hey! Me too!" Kise yelled, the grudge over his injured head forgotten as he ran to catch up. "If Kurokocchi's getting dango, I want some too!"

Midorima snorted at the others' childish behavior, until he saw his captain starting to make his way up the hill as well. "Not you too, Akashi?" Midorima asked incredulously.

Akashi turned, smirking slightly. "We have time," the red-haired boy shrugged. "And don't you think hanging around with everybody else is pretty interesting?"

Midorima sighed in defeat, giving his captain a disbelieving smile. "Huh. So you _can_ loosen up every once in a while."

Akashi's smirk widened. "Don't get used to it."

By the time Akashi and Midorima arrived at the dango stand, the rest of the team were already sitting down on the bench and chewing contentedly on sticks of the sticky balls of sweet dumplings. Murasakibara had ordered his to be extra large, with one of every color all crammed onto the stick.

"Ah, look," Murasakibara suddenly said, pointing to one of his dango. The Teiko team turned, staring at the extra large dango being held reverently in one large hand.

"Uh, what are we looking for?" Kise finally asked, after a full minute of staring at the nondescript dango and trying to figure out what the heck was so special about it that Murasakibara wanted to show it to everybody. From what he could see, it was just a normal dango - albeit a really huge one with lots of different colors.

"It's us!" Murasakibara explained impatiently, as if that fact should be obvious to anybody looking at the row of dumplings on a stick.

"Uh, are you sure you're not hallucinating?" Aomine deadpanned. "Maybe you should get your eyes checked. You're pointing at a dango."

Murasakibara rolled his eyes, snorting. "I know it's a dango, Ao-chin," he said, aggravated. "But look. All the different colors of the dango - it's us!"

"I see it," Kuroko suddenly said, getting up from the bench to stand in front of Murasakibara, peering down at the dango still being held carefully up in display. He pointed at a purple dango, at the bottom of the stick. "Is this Murasakibara-kun, then?"

"Mm," Murasakibara nodded. "I'm at the bottom because I sleep a lot, and because on the court I'm always at the back near our key."

"Then that one," Midorima came up and pointed at a green dingo skewered right underneath the topmost one, "Is that me?"

Murasakibara nodded again. "Second from the top because you're the Vice-Captain," he declared. "And this top red one is Aka-chin, because he's the Captain. He's also point guard, so he has to be at the top so he can see all of our movements and pick out the best game plan."

Aomine glared at the dingo stick, eyes narrowing at the yellow dumpling sitting innocently underneath the green one. "Hey, wait, this isn't right! Why's that bastard Kise above me?" he growled, pointing an accusing finger at the dark blue dumpling getting squished under the yellow.

"That's easy," Kuroko chuckled. "It's because Aomine-kun sleeps almost as much as Murasakibara-kun."

"Tetsu!" Aomine complained loudly at the same time as Kise cracked up laughing.

"Kurokocchi always tells the truth," Kise said smugly, winking slyly over at the fuming Aomine. "Your days of skipping practice to sleep on the roof have been found out!"

"Wait," Midorima interrupted, catching everybody's attention. Taped fingers were twirling the fairy wand around slowly in contemplation as the green-haired boy gazed intently at the stick of dumplings. "We've already named the five dango on the stick, but what about Kuroko?"

Everybody turned back to stare at the dango being held in Murasakibara's hand, recounting the number of dango.

"I hate to admit it, but that four-eyes has a point," Aomine said slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. "There's only five dango on the stick, but six of us."

"Maybe since Kurokocchi's always invisible, he's an invisible dango too?" Kise suggested.

Murasakibara licked his lips eagerly, perking up at Kise's words. "An invisible dango? Where is it? Can I eat it? Is it tasty?"

"Nevermind," Kise mumbled, giving up.

"Tetsu can be the stick," Aomine suddenly declared. "Since he holds all of us together."

Kise blinked, a slow grin spreading over his face. "Woah, Aominecchi. That was actually kind of… moving."

"I suppose even someone like you can come up with something intelligent once in a while," Midorima nodded his agreement.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!?" Aomine yelled.

"And now he's back to his usual idiotic self," Kise rolled his eyes, turning to his captain. "Hey, Akashicchi. Do you think Kuroko's the stick too?"

Akashi stared at the dango, tilting his head as he thought. "Perhaps we should let Tetsuya decide what he wants to be for himself," he remarked lightly, hardly believing that he was voluntarily taking part in such an idiotic conversation.

"Yeah!" Murasakibara agreed cheerfully, looking around for the elusive blue-haired boy. "Hey, where'd Kuro-chin go?"

Kise spun around, looking wildly around the dango stand. "I could've sworn he was _right here_ a moment ago!" he said incredulously. "Hey, Aomine! Can't you find him?"

"Tetsu!" Aomine yelled at the top of his voice, making the dango stand merchant frown over at them in obvious disapproval. "Dammit, Tetsu, where'd you go off to now?"

"What I want to be?" They all whirled around when Kuroko suddenly reappeared right in the middle of their group, bent over the dango stick and studying it carefully.

"Eek!" Kise shrieked, and this time even Akashi raised an eyebrow in surprise. Aomine clutched his chest in a mock heart-attack while Murasakibara nearly dropped his dango.

"Jeez, Tetsu. Where the hell did you go?"

Kuroko cocked his head to the side, blinking blankly. "What do you mean, Aomine-kun? I was here all this time."

"Now that's just a lie!" Kise exclaimed, trying to get his heartbeat back under control. Even after a year together on the same basketball team and witnessing Kuroko's special skill for themselves out on the court, none of them could quite get used to the way Kuroko seemed to be invisible half the time even when they weren't playing basketball.

"Really!" Kuroko insisted.

"Anyways, let's just figure this out and go home already," Midorima huffed, adjusting his glasses yet again. "Kuroko, what do you want to be? Since we're all one of the dango, Aomine said you're the stick that holds us together. Is that enough?"

"Hmm… the stick that holds everybody together?" Kuroko repeated, looking back at the dango and frowning. "I don't really want to be the stick."

"Then you're an invisible dango, right?" Kise said eagerly. "That's what I suggested!"

"An invisible dango? No, not that, either," Kuroko shook his head.

"Then what will you be, Tetsuya?" Akashi cut in, finding himself growing curious as to what the phantom player's answer would be.

Kuroko chuckled quietly to himself. "More than the stick or being invisible… I would much rather be the mouth that eats the dango," he decided, sneaking the topmost dumpling from the stick as proof before Murasakibara could move it away.

"Ah! My dango!" Murasakibara whined, staring sadly at the empty spot where the red dumpling had previously sat. Akashi ducked his head, snorting out a laugh. He could always depend on Tetsuya to surprise him.

Kuroko grinned, chewing happily on the stolen snack. "Then, everybody. Shall we go home?"

It was only when they were nearly at the intersection where they would part ways that Kise finally spoke up, tugging Midorima beside him so they were at the back of the group and unable to be overheard by the others. "Ne, ne, Midorimacchi. Don't you think that maybe… Kurokocchi's actually a pretty scary person?"

Midorima looked down at the blond-haired player, chuckling to himself as taped fingers pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "Kise… did you really only realize that just now?"

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yeah, so, the weather was really nice today and I finished re-reading the most recent released chapter of KnB. That, and because I needed some sort of short story / writing thing for my summer homework assignment. Therefore, this drabble was born. I know the characters are a bit ooc, but well, this was supposed to take place in their second year of middle school. Back when they (or at least the majority of them) still liked basketball and before the shit with the blooming skills happens. Oh, yeah, and also before Akashi goes batshit crazy (even though we all love him when he's mentally deranged~3). So there you go. I honestly have no idea how I came up with this storyline, but if pressed I will answer it's because I've always found it funny how the GoM all have different hair colors, and because I was getting sick of reading comparisons between them and a rainbow. So, what else is multi-colored and japanese? Dango!

Yep. That's literally my entire thinking process.

Anyways, hope you people like it! :D


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